Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction P2

So you've picked your merc and you're heading out to the DMZ. Right away, the game puts several enemy vehicles in your path and a rocket-propelled grenade resting visibly on a box by the road. What you must do is clear. Let that sucker fly and laugh as the rocket with the hilariously wobbly trajectory impossibly hits its mark and reduces the road block into scrap. Oh what's that? Did you just hear a cash register? That's right, for every Nork vehicle you blow up, you collect a small reward! This game rewards destruction and every building can be destroyed with enough missiles, rockets and air strikes.

The game play is more than just blowing things up. This game can be quite hard. Too much destruction can potentially kill your bounty and deny you full payment. Accidentally kill civilians and you lose cash to the agency for public image "damage control". The Norks aren't such pushovers too. Their RPG troopers inflict incredibly annoying splash damage. Bunkers continuously spawn troops or TANKS and must be taken out by a well placed air strike or enough crates of C4. Vehicles can instantly kill you by running you over and if you're careless with your ordnance, as our pal Mattias often is, you'd be vaporized in an instant. If you die, you respawn in an AN medic camp but you're money will be deducted and that's money you could have spent on shelling that small village! What a waste.

The game is fairly linear; capture every ace until you get to Song. The faction missions are well done and actually have an overarching story that explodes in the climax of the fourth act. The Chinese are enemies with the South Koreans and you're actions drive them to the brink. None of the missions feel too repetitive. There's a mission I must mention where the Mafia needs you to collect small valuable things from several people quickly so they give you a super fast, ruby red, extra delicate sports car that must be made of magnetic material since rockets seem to be drawn to it. Finish the mission with the car in one piece for an extra bonus!

Aside from missions, you could go free roaming and collect regular bounties for cash and intel. You could do challenges or collect several rare items scattered across the map to unlock new stuff in the Mafia website. You could just dick around and destroy every North Korean unit you see and you'd still get paid for it.

Combat is just fun. The best part about it is hijacking enemy vehicles such as jeeps, tanks, helicopter gunships... You can even turn them in at the Mafia garage and earn even more money! There's nothing quite like running from cover to cover, shooting, throwing grenades and calling down air strikes on wave upon wave of never ending enemies who will not stop coming until every last building is reduced to craters visible from space.

Interestingly, the game even has a very basic stealth system in it. You can use faction vehicles to sneak in faction restricted areas. It is possible to sneak around and use your rifle to pick off key targets and use satellite targeted bombs to destroy important buildings from far away. Don't expect a pure stealth run to be possible. Maybe "stealth" is the wrong word. "Tactical" seems more like it.

To avoid staleness, the ace missions take place in their own special stages as mentioned. After every act, the violence in the map escalates and the work you've done for factions start to show. After the second act, we move to a new map further north that's even chaotic. Its smart to do this.

No complaints for the voice acting. Its good. The musical score is very good too. Each faction has a leitmotif going on and the music goes well with the frantic action. The graphics are excellent for its time. Its nice that the game can handle all the explosions, gunfire and carnage in a large map with little to no lag.


The only bad things about this game is that you can't swim. Aquatic shenanigans would add to this game but its not really necessary. The trees are indestructible for some reason. You cant even run over it with your tank. That sticks out like a sore thumb.What other bad thing can I possibly mention about this awesome game? Well there's a bug where the shotgun doesn't make a sound when fired. That's about it. Oh yeah, it spawned a terrible sequel but that's not this games fault now is it?

I just might hook up my old PS2 for this.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

I'm not the biggest fan of sandbox games. Ever since GTA3 became a hit, many other sandbox style games tried to get in on the action. Some were fun, sure, but only a few were awesome and memorable. Games like Prototype for example, are just mindless fun and that's about it. Sandbox games aren't just about smashing stuff in a wide open environment. You're IN that environment too after all, so it has to feel a certain way, some kind of flavor or style. Its hard to describe exactly.

Of all the sandbox games, I consider Mercenaries:Playground of Destruction the best I've played. That's right, THE BEST in my humble opinion. It was just an awesome game. It was a sandbox game done right. The gameplay, story and other elements just worked together so well. This gem is woefully underrated.

If you dismiss this game as just another "GTA clone", I will punch you in the mouth. M:PoD was developed by the late Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts for the Ps2 and the Xbox. The setting is a fictionalized North Korea. The evil dictator, General Song, has allegedly killed his peacenik daddy and staged a coup. Also, weapons of mass destruction, oh my! A multi-national task force has moved in to take him out but who cares? You are a mercenary! You are working for Executive Operations and you're there to collect bounties and make lots and lots of money while things explode around you.


As you can see by the game's cover, You get to choose from three different mercenary characters to play as. There's Chris Jacobs, ex-Delta Force black guy who has the highest health of the three. Seriously, he can take a tank shell to the face and live. There's Jennifer Mui, a Chinese-British person born in Hong Kong, who was a member of M16. She's the stealthy one and harder to detect. Then there's Mattias Nillson, an ex-Swedish Navy artillery officer who's voiced by Peter Stormare and has an unhealthy obsession with explosions. He's the "crazy" one. He can run the fastest and can regenerate to the base 20% health faster than the others (I think). He's perfect for the kamikaze types. All mercenaries have Fiona Taylor as their ExOps radio support. She has a sexy voice and an even sexier Australian accent. Australian accents are the hottest accents ever. Its statistically proven, don't doubt me.

There are factions in the game who you take missions from and gain reputation with. There's the "Allied Nations" who are obviously American. There's the South Koreans who are there for obvious reasons, there's the Chinese who are there for shady reasons and then we have the Russian Mafiya who are there to make lots and lots of money while things explode around them. Oh yeah, there's the North Koreans, who are always chaotic evil and are just cannon fodder.

One thing that deserves mentioning is that the Russians run the weapons black market via website called "The Merchant of Menace". Through this website, you can order all sorts of weapons, vehicles and even airstrikes! Just wire some money in and uncle Sergei will convince the Americans to "test fire" a bunker-buster bomb in that "abandoned" bunker where, coincidentally, your enemies happen to be hiding in. Maintaining good relations with the Russians is a must although its a little hard seeing as how their missions, in particular, often pit you against everyone else. They are the troll faction basically.

The game works like this. You collect bounties. There's a most wanted list in the form of a deck of cards kind of like Saddam's regime in the second Gulf War. General Song is the ace of spades, the final boss you must capture dead or alive. To get to him, you need intel which is provided by the other aces. To get to the aces, you need intel from the lesser cards, from deuce to king. See how this works? The game is divided into four acts with each act corresponding to a suit of cards. Act one are club cards, two are diamonds, three are hearts and four are spades.

Numbered cards are found in the open game world. Hell, you can even stumble around and find one accidentally. Capture deuce to ten and you can unlock the ace mission. The royal card targets will only spawn in the game world if you do enough missions for a particular faction. The royals are worth more intel apiece than a numbered card. Capturing a bounty alive nets more cash and intel while a dead one is only half. Once enough intel is gathered, either from hunting down the numbers yourself or capturing a royal or two with the aid of the factions, the ace mission is unlocked. Ace missions are given by the AN and take place in their own unique maps with unique mission mechanics and set pieces. It feels more epic that way and makes taking down an ace feel like a big deal which it is. Its a nice touch. After an ace of a suit is captured, the next act begins. Cards of a previous suit can no longer be captured as a new suit comes into play.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about the gameplay. For now, I'll leave you with the epic opening theme of M:PoD. Yes, the music kicks ass too.



Ciao.

Query

A lot of people ponder on the difficult questions in life; "Is there a God?" "What is the point of it all?" "What's the meaning of life?" and so on. I too, spend much time trying to answer mind-boggling questions.

For example, in the movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, why is it that the Decepticons can send a hot robo-chick after the main character Sam, while the rest of them still insist on disguising themselves as cars? You'd think that if the Decepticons could disguise themselves as humans, that would be far more effective and devastating. They would have taken over in no time.

Optimus is descended from the Primes right? How can he be a descendant since the Primes are already dead? You know, a brief one second explanation would have been nice. Did the Primes die when Optimus was still a baby or something? Is that even possible?

Why did Sam have to go to Egypt and all that shit to try and revive Optimus when he had a piece of the Allspark in his backpack all along? How in the hell did Sam see visions of robots when he "died"?

Why did I see that movie?

Bribery 101

I just had a thought. College is supposed to prepare us for the professional world right? Wouldn't it make sense for them to also teach the basics of bribery and corrupt practices. Given the way things are done in this country, being taught these essential skills for functioning as a proper member of society is a no-brainer.

Classes would be interesting. Instead of being told not to cheat, we are taught the best techniques in evading capture. Then again, I guess it would be difficult to pass since another studet could outbribe the teacher or hire someone to fling dirt and ruin your reputation.

Unless the teacher is a relative.

Something Lively

Posting music videos by their name in the title while their name is on the video itself is kind of redundant...

Fallout: New Vegas Part 2

The story is definitely Fallout but the gameplay is inherited from Fallout 3, meaning its using the same game engine. When I talk about gameplay, I can't help but compare it to FO3 but I'll try not to compare these two too much.

There's a "hardcore mode" available in the beginning that adds a hunger, thirst and rest meter that you must satisfy by eating, drinking and sleeping. It's not as hard as it sounds, its easy enough to satisfy so really, its more of an annoyance so far. Also, companions can die permanently in this mode so pay attention and save often.

If you've played FO3, you'd immediately realize that the combat has changed for the better. There's iron sights now and the weapons can be fired accurately in first person view now. It is so much better than the weapons in FO3 which were so horribly inaccurate, you could aim at the broadside of a barn and hit a nun. Playing the game as a standard shooter is now possible. V.A.T.S. or Vault Assisted Targeting System still exists but its just that; an ASSIST system. You don't have to rely on it 24/7. Its handy for crippling the legs of monsters because some of them are really good at hitting you and you can't fake them out like you used to in FO3. Blowing up their kneecaps works wonders. Its a system to make precise shooting of limbs easier. V.A.T.S. no longer makes you immune to damage so it becomes a tactical choice. Do you make targeted shots like shooting a guy's arm to make him drop his gun while his pal wails on you with his very large knife or do you go old fashioned and just go shooter on them? Glad to see this change.

Another important detail is damage threshold. Basically, a guy with armor gets a high DT value and certain weapons can't pierce it and do full damage. It adds a welcome challenge to the game and armor really matters now. It helps a lot. There's a crafting system for ammo, meds, chems and food but it leaves a lot to be desired. I'll explain why later.

The quests are refreshingly different and sometimes more complex than FO3. For one, speech skill checks and stat checks are no longer luck based. Its either you meet the requirement or you don't so dialogue options won't be the same for every character. But dialogue isn't the only way to solve a quest although it allows you to do pull off some pretty manipulative and funny shit. You can use sneaking, pickpocketing and lock picking skills to bypass obstacles. If your character is smart he can hack computers to get info some NPCs wouldn't otherwise give. Basically, if you've invested in certain skills, no matter how strange, its bound to give you a boon in certain quests. There's this one quest where you need to kidnap someone and a high guns skill allows you to pistol whip him silently but if you chose speech instead, you can simply talk him into walking into a trap. Basically, if your character is built to fight, by God, that's what he's gonna do. No talking out of that. There's main quests and there are smaller ones that intertwine with each other. Some are contradictory in fact and can't be done along with another so choose your sides. At least we've gone beyond the point of fetch quests that involve going to A and B while going through long metro tunnels. If you played FO3 and know what I'm saying, pat yourself in the back or better yet, hang yourself. Questing is better.

As for graphics, well, we've seen it all before. It's adequate though it feels old but only because I've played FO3 too much and see it as recycled material. The music features classic songs and the choices of songs are top shelf. They get repetitive though. Even a handful of good songs can get repetitive but hey, turn the radio off and enjoy the original music from FO they put in the game. I must mention the voice acting. I was so fucking relieved to hear more than 3 voice actors in this game. The voice acting is better and more varied. The voice acting features the talents of Danny Trejo. Let that sink in for a minute.

You might think that I love this game to death and think that its the Fallout game FO3 should have been. While the latter is true, I grieves me to say I must know expose the bad bits of FO:NV. Nothing is perfect and with the good comes the bad.

Did I mention the engine is buggy as hell? The game is plagued with so many problems. Even quests can get bugged and some things become impossible to do. That's the biggest gripe I have about this game. The patch relieves some of it but it shouldn't be so terrible in the first place.

Another problem is also caused by using the same engine. The interface is badly designed. To equip or use an item, you have to go to your PIP-BOY menu using the tab button. The game pauses. You must navigate about 2 or 3 windows to see your weapons list and pick out what you want to kill with. God, help you if you want to use food or medicine. See, food, medicine and chems are all categorized under "Aid" section. If you have a lot of assorted food and medicine like a survival skill oriented character would, it tends to get cluttered. Its only sorted alphabetically but gee, I would have appreciated a "medicine" tab or a "chems" tab or even a "craftables" tab. You can use hotkeys though but still, Id appreciate a system to more easily access my shit. A bag system maybe? Something that allows you to grab right away and doesn't involve goddamn PIP-BOY scrolling. Crafting is difficult due to this unless you keep note of ingredients but who does that? Crafting should have its own recipe notebook or a better system overall.

By the way, the hunger, thirst and sleep meters are misleading. For example, the more thirsty you are, the higher the number in the meter. Let's say, the value is 75 H2o. A bottle of water has - 50 H20. It seems bad but it reduces your thirst meter so negative is actually good for you? Seems a bit misleading but its a minor point.

I can't complain about the story just yet but it just left the dirty diaper called FO3's plot in the dust.

SUMMARY

FA:NV when compared to FO3 is a vast improvement. Its much better executed and is just the smarter game. Even on its own, its a pretty. It has the spirit of Fallout in it too but its a spirit trapped in an old, bloated rotting carcass. Its a good game trapped in a bad game engine. It's like a genius brain trapped in a body with radiation poisoning and pubic lice. This game is worth getting only if you can update it. If you've played FO3 before, this game will make you love again. If you haven't played FO3, skip it and play this.

I hope it won't crash so much now that I've written good things about it.

Fallout: New Vegas Part 1

When I first heard of Fallout: New Vegas, I wondered to myself how they could possibly ruin Fallout even more. I wrote about Fallout 3 and how stupid it was and how the game had more bugs than a two peso prostitute. Yet, there was cautious optimism. There was word that it would be developed by Obsidian Entertainment and would actually have people from Black Isle Studios, those people who had experience with the previous Fallout games, to work on it. But then again, it used the same engine as Fallout 3 so FO:NV being a buggy mess was a foregone conclusion. In fact, I would have played this game sooner but the games shop I regularly go to pulled this product out because it was so buggy that they received too many complaints. Its the first time they ever did that and it was discouraging. Fortunately, I have acquired a "copy" but don't ask about its authenticity. I haven't finished it yet but I'll weigh in on how it is so far.

STORY

The opening cinematic shows you over a shallow grave about to be shot in the head by some asshole in a checkered suit. You take a bullet to the brain but somehow manage to survive. You are rescued by a robot and bought to a doctor in a small town called Goodsprings in the middle of the Mojave desert. After the doctor patches you up and you build your character, you step out back into the world ready for adventure. You are The Courier. Your job was to deliver a mysterious item but you got ambushed obviously. The main quest involves you going after the people who tried to kill you and unravelling the mystery behind the delivery you were supposed to make. Eventually you make it to New Vegas which is run by the enigmatic Mr.House who nobody has even seen. New Vegas seems to be exactly what you'd expect, a haven of vice and sin. Awesome. There's a lot of optional quests and exploration to be done.

Since the story is set in the West Coast, the same place as the first two Fallout games, there's a lot of references to the events of those games. The references aren't superficial. It really takes place in the continuity of those previous games. Shady Sands, Tandi, The New California Republic, and New Reno are all mentioned. FO:NV takes place in the same setting. Its nice that the source material gets attention with nods here and there. New Vegas is a thriving city and the towns outside it are actually important given the need for caravans and supplies. In other words, the locations MAKE SENSE unlike a town built around an atom bomb for example or a town of nothing but children like we had in FO3.

There are two main factions: The New California Republic and The Legion. The NCR originated from Shady Sands of the first game and is what you might consider the closest to an actual US government. The NCR has a rugged, wild west ranger thing about it but its hinted that the NCR are too big and bureaucratic. They aren't the good guys per se its just that the other factions aren't really into human rights and freedom and shit. The other faction is Caesar's Legion. Its led by a guy calling himself Caesar and is based on the Roman Empire. The Legion is no joke. They're numerous, fanatical and an actual threat to the NCR. Their also into slavery and subjugation of women. They are a ruthless and martial society. You might think that its ridiculous how there's a faction based on Ancient Rome but hey, its not too far a stretch. They're not shy about using guns. You gotta have some suspension of disbelief.

I'll continue about the gameplay and other elements tomorrow.

Man Wash

I keep hearing this commercial over the radio for MASCULINE wash. This time, it had a sexy woman voice talking about how its so great and how it cleans so good and leaves you fresh and gives you confidence and what else. I may have written about it before but now I feel like trying it out.

To think I've been an ignorant boob content with just soap and water. I'm tired of living in the past! I want to be metro and buy a care product tailored especially for intelligent men. I just wish they didn't call it "MASCULINE wash" because it doesn't sound masculine at all. No impact. It doesn't sound good. Maybe MASCULINE SCRUB? How about MANLY SLIPSTREAM or MAN DELUGE?

Man I'm bored.

Wrestlemania 27: The Fallout

I got to see Wrestlemania last Monday. Here's a run down on what happened. What is the worst Wrestlemania ever? I don't know but what I do know is that it kinda sucked and I pity the silly Americans and their Pay-per-views when I can watch it for free.

U.S. Championship: Sheamus v Daniel Bryan
Hahaha! What? The U.S. Championship was turned into a dark match that ended with no winner? What? It descended to a messy lumberjack match or some kind of "Royal Rumble" thing? What? The Great Khali won? WHAT? The one match that was actually promising was turned into shit? What? How do I know? The Internet is whining about it being ruined to this day. Fuck you, WWE.

World Heavyweight Championship: Edge v Alberto Del Rio Unfortunately I didn't catch this match so I can't comment if it was any good but what I do know is that Edge retained. It's peculiar that they first televised match would be the WWE Championship match. It's usually towards the big events later.

Cody Rhodes v Rey Mysterio
Cody came out with his plastic face mask and crappy dark remix of his entrance theme. You know, the plot of the feud is that Cody's face was damaged by Rey and now Cody thinks he's an ugly freak. I can't understand why they'd let Cody wear a plastic face mask that's transparent so that we can see that there's absolutely no damage whatsoever. Also, wouldn't his mask be a foreign object and thus, be illegal? Rey comes out in Captain America themed gear. What is it with Rey dressing up as comic book characters? He had a Joker theme once which I thought was pretty cool in a weird way. Rey appears to be wearing a leg brace so I guess it evens out Cody's mask so its fair? Also, despite wearing a leg brace, Rey shows no signs that his leg is in any bad shape. He's running around doing flips and shit. Ugh. Whatever. OK match. Cody managed to use Rey's leg brace to hit Rey while the Referee was distracted by something shiny all the way over the other side of the ring . Cody hits his finisher for the win.

(Backstage Crap with Snoop Dogg I Don't Care About)

The Corre v Face Team
What a terrible match. So The Corre show up with their shitty t-shirts and then the good guys show up. The match begins and almost immediately, hijinks happen with people falling out of the ring and whatever. Long story short, the good guys win in what appeared to be a two-minute match. Hell, their entrances seemed longer. Half of The Corre, namely Wade and Ezekiel, were totally inconsequential and did nothing at all. The other half, who are also the freaking Tag-Team Champions in case you forgot, didn't even get five seconds of offense in. It was a goddamn burial. Jesus, The Corre doesn't deserve this and I don't think a squash match belongs in a big even like Wrestlemania.

CM Punk v Randy Orton
Great match with a shitty ending. Punk and Randy go at it for a while. At first it's a back and forth match but Punk gets the upper hand. Punk targets Randy's "injured" leg and pounds on it mercilessly. He stomps it and puts holds on it while Randy sells the pain convincingly. At one point, Randy attempts to do a running "patented punt" (Fuck you too, Michael Cole) but his leg gives way and he falls over. What a dumbass. Punk even manages to do a standing Figure-Four Leg lock on the turnbuckles which was awesome. Yet despite all the impressive offense and Randy's theatrics of pain, Randy inexplicably jumps up and pulls an RKO finishing move out of nowhere on a suddenly reckless Punk, who was cold and methodical before, and throws all the psychology of the match out the window. Why even target the damn leg all throughout the match when in the end, it didn't even matter? Gah.

Michael Cole v Jerry Lawler
Shit. Just take my word for it.

The Undertaker v Triple H
Best match of the whole damn show but is it enough to save Wrestlemania? You watch it and decide because I won't spoil it. What impressed me is that The Undertaker, despite his height, weight and age, still managed to clear the ropes for a Suicide Dive like it was nothing. I actually believed, for a second, that Triple H just might beat The Undertaker but alas, The Undertaker finally beat Triple H in Wrestlemania, despite having fought him already before a few years back but WWE hopes you won't remember that. By the way, Triple H's entrance was the coolest ever.

Snooki, John Morrison and Trish Stratus v LayCool and Dolph Ziggler
I guess I haven't seen this match too because I went downstairs to grab a quick snack and when I came back, it was over. Snooki was booed but she managed to pull a double back flip something which surprised me. The winner? Face team.

WWE Championship: The Miz v John Cena
The match begins with an impressive video package for The Miz. The video's message was pretty much "I'm the Champion and if you don't like it, go sleep on the train tracks." Cena's entrance had a freaking black gospel choir with a prayer session or something making it impossible to boo at least, until Cena finally comes out and then the boos start. The match was OK I guess. The Miz can wrestle but he just didn't bring style in my opinion. Cena sucked. The match ended in a double DQ but The Rock appears and restarts the match. He also hits Cena with a Rock Bottom. The Miz pins for the win. Cena lost. Cena lost and I smiled.

Wasn't that great.

Krieg Krieg Krieg

Cinemax has been offering a nice collection of war movies lately. This morning, I missed most of The Bridge Over The River Kwai which is sad but I just saw The Battle of The Bulge a while ago. I think I already saw it but its nice to watch again. It is a good movie.

One thing that always grabs my attention in old war movies like this is how the Germans are always yelling the same old stock phrases. "Achtung!" "Schnell, los!" "Halt!" "Hande hoch!" and "Raus!" It is to be expected but what bothers me is that they not only use the same words but they also sound exactly the same every instance their said. I might be imagining things but I think all WW2 war movies use these phrases like stock sound effects. I think they might have a cabinet labelled "General Purpose Nazi Sounds" or something and just reuse it like the Wilhelm Scream.

Alarm!